SQL Server

Three strengths

• Reporting included. Tools for reporting, moving data between systems, and analysis come alongside the database itself. 1
• Skills carry to Azure. The same engine runs Azure SQL Database and the SQL database in Microsoft Fabric, so what you learn on one carries over. 1
• Failover built in. Backup, recovery and failover features are part of the product, so a failed server doesn't have to mean lost time. 1

What it is

Every app needs somewhere to keep its records, and a database is that place: an organised store that survives when the app is closed and lets many people use the same information at once. Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system, which means it keeps information in linked tables of rows and columns. Applications connect to a SQL Server database and talk to it in Transact-SQL (T-SQL), Microsoft's version of SQL, the standard language for working with data. 1

SQL Server's story starts in the 1980s. Euan Garden, a member of the SQL Server team, records that Microsoft and Sybase began a partnership in 1987 to build a database product, and that the first version, Ashton-Tate/Microsoft SQL Server, shipped in 1989 for the OS/2 operating system. 2 Microsoft's own SQL Server blog dates the product's history to the same year. 4 Windows support arrived in 1990, and when the partnership ended in 1994, Microsoft could take the code in its own direction. 2 SQL Server 7.0, released in 1998, required "a complete rewrite of the Database Engine", 2 so today's product is Microsoft's own work.

The database engine is the core of a larger toolkit. Microsoft's documentation lists Integration Services, which moves and reshapes data between systems, Analysis Services for business intelligence, and Reporting Services for building and sharing reports. 1 The same engine also runs Azure SQL Database and the SQL database in Microsoft Fabric, so what you learn on one carries over to the others. 1

It's in wide use: 30.1% of developers surveyed in 2025 said they use it. 3

We choose it when it fits the world a client already lives in. For a business that runs on Microsoft, SQL Server is the natural database to sit beside the rest of their setup.

How we use it

We choose SQL Server when the client runs on Microsoft. For most new builds our default is PostgreSQL, but where your systems already sit in the Microsoft world, such as Azure or Fabric, a Microsoft database keeps everything speaking the same language.

In Software Development, it's the database behind an app that has to live alongside your Microsoft systems. In Data Solutions, it's one of the stores we pull from and organise data in. In Solution Architecture, it's one of the options we weigh when we plan a system, so the technology we recommend lines up with what you already run.

References

1. Microsoft, "What Is SQL Server?", Microsoft Learn. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/what-is-sql-server (accessed 28 October 2026)
2. Euan Garden, "SQL MythBusters: 'SQL Server is really a Sybase product not a Microsoft one.'", MSDN Blogs (archived on Microsoft Learn), 19 January 2006. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/euanga/sql-mythbusters-sql-server-is-really-a-sybase-product-not-a-microsoft-one (accessed 28 October 2026)
3. Stack Overflow, "2025 Developer Survey: Technology", survey.stackoverflow.co, 2025. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology (accessed 28 October 2026)
4. SQL Server Team, "New Video: The History of SQL Server", Microsoft SQL Server Blog, 15 February 2012. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/blog/2012/02/15/new-video-the-history-of-sql-server/ (accessed 28 October 2026)